MINSK: A large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army was spotted entering Belarus from Russia early Saturday, a monitoring group reported after the country’s defence ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills. The independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun, which tracks the movements of armed forces in Belarus, said at least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed into the eastern European country accompanied by Belarusian police.
The group did not immediately provide photos or videos of the vehicles but said they had licence plates from Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries fought alongside Russian troops until a shortlived mutiny last month.
The convoy headed toward a military base outside Osipovichi, a town 230kmnorth of the Ukrainian border. Satellite images this month showed rows of tentlike structures that appeared to have been built at the base.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at the time that Minsk could use Wagner’s expertise, and that he had offered them an “abandoned military unit” to set up camp. An anti-Lukashenko guerrilla group leader had said construction of a site for the mercenaries was underway near Osipovichi.
The group did not immediately provide photos or videos of the vehicles but said they had licence plates from Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries fought alongside Russian troops until a shortlived mutiny last month.
The convoy headed toward a military base outside Osipovichi, a town 230kmnorth of the Ukrainian border. Satellite images this month showed rows of tentlike structures that appeared to have been built at the base.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at the time that Minsk could use Wagner’s expertise, and that he had offered them an “abandoned military unit” to set up camp. An anti-Lukashenko guerrilla group leader had said construction of a site for the mercenaries was underway near Osipovichi.